Toy



Patented Sept. 8, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT o1-rice CHARLES J'. GER-KEN, 0F SOUTH JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TO JAMES GIR-AEG PHILLIPS, GF JAGKSONVILLE,l FLORIDA l TOY Application led October 9, 1930. Serial No. 487,568.

This invention relates to games and toys and more particularly to a hand operated toy in which skill, quickness of hand and quickness of eye are necessary for its successful operation.

One object of the invention is to provide a toy which is very simple in construction but cannot be accurately operated without a great deal of practice.

Another object of the invention is to so form the toy that a body or counter may slide easily upon a thread or equivalent flexible carrier but may be quickly brought to a stop when the flexible carrieris tightened.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein,

Figure 1 is a view showing the flexible carrier held taut and the movable body held in a set position upon the carrier,

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a view of t-he blank from which the hollow body is formed.

This improved toy consists of a flexible carrier 1 and a body or counter 2, slidably longitudinally upon the carrier. The carrier preferably consists of a piece of strong thread which may be of any length desired and at its ends carries abutments 3 which may be small wooden knobs, buttons, or any suitable object through which the ends of the thread or carrier may be secured and which may be easily grasped so that ends of the thread may be held in a persons hands. It will thus be seen that the operator by grasping the abutments 3 at the ends of the thread may hold this thread or iiexible carrier in a vertical position and either allow the thread to be slack or held taut.

The hollow body 2 be formed of sheet metal, thin wood, cardboard or any other suitable material and will be preferably formed from a blank such as shown in Figure 3 and indicated by the numeral 4. This blank is scored along lines 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 so that it may be easily bent to form front and rear walls 10 and 11, side walls 1 2 and upper and lower walls 13. After the blank has been folded the contacting marginal edges of the walls are joined in any desired manner thereby forming a hollow body and since the upper and lower end walls 13 are formed with openings'14 which are of suticient diameter to through the hollow body will be distorted- Vas shown in Figure 2. From an inspection of this ligure it will be readily seen that when the lthread or flexible carrier is tightened the portion thereof within the hollow body will be drawn tightly against the brake bar and frictional binding Vwill take place which will prevent sliding movement of the body along the carrier. Therefore, by proper manipulation of the flexible carrier the hollow body or counter may be allowed to slide freely thereon until it is desired to stop movement of the body. It -is then merely necessary to move the hands apart in order to tighten the flexible carrier and the body will be brought to a stop. The intermediate portion of the thread 1 is colored to form sectors 17, 18 and 19 which are preferably red, white and blue as shown in Figure 1 and each sector is slightly greater in length than the hollow body. By properly manipulating the flexible carrier the body may be permitted to slide along the carrier and be brought to astop within the confines of one of these sectors. These sectors may be given different counting values with the center sector preferably having the highest value and any rules desired may Vbe decided upon for counting score or the objectmay be merely to see how often a player can bring the moving body to a stop within the contines of a selected one of the sectors. It will be obvious that the hollow body instead of being rectangular may be any other shape desired, but it is important that the friction brake bar be olfset with respect to the openings through which the flexible carrier passes so that sliding movement of the body along the carrier may be stopped by tightening the carrier.

Having thus described the invention, I

5 claim:

l. Aitoy comprising a` flexible linear carrier having portions marked to define distinct sections, a body slidable along said carrier,the sections being each of only slightly greater length than the body and an element carried by said body and adapted to bear against the carrier and stop movement of the body along the carrier when the carrier is stretched tight.

2. A toy comprising a flexible linear carrier having its intermediate portion marked to define distinct sections, a body slidable along said carrier, the sections being each of slightly greater length than the body and a l friction brake carried by said body and adapted to bear against the carrier and stop movement of the body along the carrier when the'carrier is stretched tight.

SIA toy comprising a flexible linear carrier having portions colored to define dis tinct sections, a hollou7 body having opposed Walls formed with aligned openings, the sections being each of slightly greater length than the body1 said carrier extending through 3u the body and being threaded through the openings to mount the body for sliding longitudinally upon the carrier, and a brake in said body disposed in offset relation to the openings and engaging said carrier to stop l5 movement of the body along the carrier when the carrier is stretched tight.

4. A toy comprising a flexible linear carrierhaving portions marked to define distinct sections, a hollow body of slightly less 40 length than a section having side walls and endwalls, the end walls of the body having aligned openings formed therein, said carrier extending longitudinally through the body and being threaded through the openings in the end walls to mount the body for sliding longitudinally upon the carrier, and a bar extending through said body intermediate the length thereof between the side walls and disposed in offset relation to the openings inthe end walls whereby the bar distorts the portion of the carrier extending through the body and constitutes a friction break adapted to stop movement of the body along the carrier when the carrier is stretched In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

CHAR-LES J. GERKEN. [L s] 

